BidiFy Makes Fast Moves To Tweak Their Compensation To Make It Compliant In The Wake Of The SEC Actions Against Zeek Rewards.

[quote]
Hi Troy,

This is to inform you of huge changes taking place in Bidify right now.

Mail and Recorded call with Kevin Thompson is published on our Websites.

Kind Regards
Frode

The past few days have been very busy for the entire MLM industry. As many of you know, our specific niche was rocked last Friday when it became known that Zeek Rewards, our main competitor, was shut down as an illegal ponzi scheme. After reading a few reports, it appears that Paul Burks, Zeek’s founder, is not contesting any of the allegations in the SEC’s complaint. Assuming those allegations to be true, this is a tragic event for everyone involved with Zeek.
Unfortunately, since we’re also operating a network marketing company in the penny auction arena, our name has been drawn into the mud with Zeek. We understand that many of you have questions and concerns about our business model. We understand that many of you want to know specifically what factors distinguishes us from Zeek.

Well, for starters, we’re not lying to you about the numbers. We publish our earnings daily. Those earnings drive the daily profit rewards. Second, our bids are actually being used. With Zeek, it has been alleged that only 0.25% of the bids purchased were every used. It clearly shows that the bid purchases were merely token purchases designed to conceal a money transfer from late investors to early investors. On Bidsson, the bids are actually being used. We have built an amazing technology platform and when we release our mobile applications, it’s only going to get stronger.

But we understand that these differences alone are not enough. We understand that no matter how hard we try to force affiliates to move sample bids to customers, it’s going to be nearly impossible to prevent people from promoting the program as an investment. In reality, Bidify is NOT an investment. However, since there’s so much profit generated on the penny auction side of the business, and when people rack up a portion of those profits by providing sample bids for customers, it’ll always be viewed as a passive investment.

We realize that now, and we’re committed to putting an end to it. After having countless meetings between management and our legal counsel, we have developed a revised business plan to protect the longevity of the company while keeping it a very competitive and lucrative opportunity for the masses.

After serious discussions, we have decided to eliminate the leadership bonuses from Bidsson. We are eliminating the ability for people to purchase and give away sample bids. While it served a valid purpose in generating activity on the Bidsson platform, it creates the most exposure. And quite frankly, given the excellent condition of our technology and our recent success with Bidsson, there’s really no need to be giving away so many free bids to customers. We offer an excellent deal for customers, one that they’re willing to pay for.

We’re eliminating the daily leadership bonuses and turning off the re-purchase. We feel this was the cancer. This has led affiliates, both in Zeek and Bidify, to refer to their commissions as “compounding” when in fact it was a function of a simple commission based on customer activity. In order to cure the cancer and eliminate all confusion, it must be removed.

In order to make it more lucrative to buy and sell bids for everyone, we are putting together a new bonus plan based more on a traditional MLM, one that will not lead to improper positioning in the field.

With all existing affiliates with bonus points in their back office, we are creating a new pool where we will continue to share profits from Bidsson. These bonus points will trigger a piece of the profits from Bidsson indefinitely. The size of your profit sharing stake will not grow. It’s our way of honoring our commitments to you. We want to make sure that your experience is consistent with your expectations when you joined.

We will continue to build Bidsson to become the biggest penny auction platform in the world, and we will continue to reward affiliates for helping us promote it.

We will take down the website to implement these improvements. Stay tuned. We do these changes to make Bidify a long lasting opportunity for everyone.

We are committed to offering the safest model possible and cannot offer anything less.

We will be holding a conference call with Kevin Thompson, our legal counsel, where we’ll discuss these changes. He’s been given free rein to be candid during the call and shoot straight with everyone. It should be a good one!

This weekend has been one of the craziest I have ever seen. The information on Zeek Rewards and Rex Venture Group has been growing since the SEC closed them down with the emergency order. Below is the most current info and some resources to help all the former affiliates of Zeek Rewards get their refunds.

[quote]Our firm is developing an action plan for the victims in Zeek. I recently called Ken Bell, the receiver, to establish a relationship. The receiver in this case is going to be required to deal with over 500,000 people. I think our firm can represent the victims and act as an advocate on behalf of the community. Instead of dealing with each individual, the receiver can deal with our firm and we can communicate effectively on behalf of our people. Calling the AG’s hotline is not going to work for people. [/quote]

BidiFy CCO, Frode Jorgensen reached out this week to share some facts on the Sales Credit Bonus program. Last week I reported on the changes, and had some folks question the validity of the change. Now we know more…

“Hi Troy, just wanted to touch base with latest updates.

All parts of the Frequent Sale Credits changes in Bidify are now implemented, and all pages/presentations are updated with latest information.

We have noticed that some people believe that we have changed the wording only, which is not the case. This has been a huge change for us, so it may have been “work in progress” on some of our website’s pages. I’m pretty sure it’s all updated now.

You will see it’s all presented on the website the way it’s supposed to be presented now.

We are working on our new income disclosure, which we will base on the first three months of operations, it will make much more sense calculating this now when Bidsson is running at full steam, as we want the numbers to be as accurate as possible.

We have sold many nice items in the auction, we auctioned away a brand new Volkswagen Up and the lucky winner got a brand new car valued 8000 euros for only 180,68 euros… someone really made a bargain, and on top of that the company made good money as well, as a total of 18,068 bids were used in that auction.

Our main focus is on building Bidsson, the Penny auction to become the biggest GLOBAL penny auction in the world.
As Bidsson grows bigger and better every day, so does the amount of auctions and winners, which in turn generate more leadership bonuses for all Bidify affiliates.

There is A LOT of exciting stuff going on, but we are not quite ready to share it all just quite yet…..”

Frode Jorgensen CCO of BidiFy has been watching what my reports, and is continuing to keep me posted on the changes he and his team feel is important in staying compliance not just in the USA, but also around the world. This new report on BidiFy and the Bidsson Penny Auction truly shows some positive improvements. I will be sending Frode some questions which people are still wondering about this week, so be watching for an update soon.

On top of the already powerful rewards system Bidify has put in place, Bidify rewards you Frequent Sales Credit everytime a sale takes place in your organization. In fact every time a sale takes place in your pay-line we reward you with a 20% Frequent Sale Credit. Frequent Sale Credits cannot be withdrawn as cash, but can instead be used to purchase products both in Bidify & Bidsson. It is similar to a “Frequent Flyer” program.

You can spend your Frequent Sale Credits in multiple ways with a single click of a button.

Randy Jeffers is not new to Network Mareketing. As one of the most colorful founders in current MLM history, he has experienced both ups and downs. Randy rose to fame by launching one of the fastest growing network marketing companies in history Destiny TelCom, just to see it fall when regulators came busting through the doors.

After fighting off regulators on every front, all that was left was Randy’s drive to build another company. Liberty International was born, and for years Randy run under the radar, creating a very successful company, with thousands of networkers earning their products and services for free, and several hundred became financially independent.

In 2009 – 2010 during the MLM Wireless Wars (you can read more on this site), Randy Jeffers and his team launched WOW Mobile, quickly taking on all the other pre-paid MLM wireless companies and dominating… for a short period of time. Soon, it was exposed that WOW Mobile through no fault of their own (except Randy didn’t see something in the fine print of his agreement between T-Mobile and himself), that both he and his LLC were responsible for all international calls maded by customers and reps of WOW Mobile. Long story short, Randy bankrupted the company, and distributors purport they are still owed missions in back commissions.

Randy, went on to help launch Liberty International network, and went back to creating a solid program, where thousands get their products/services for free, while a few long time leaders are still enjoying financial freedom.

Which brings up to the current MLM trend Unique Bid Auctions aka Penny Auctions aka Reverse Auctions. DubLi Network is the first such company to launch in the USA back in 2009 – 2010. DubLi slowed down to correct some of their early issues, and then focused on international expansion.

In 2010 Rex Venture Group, launched their penny auction house Zeekler, and in 2011 added Zeek Rewards, their Network Marketing affiliate organization to help market and advertise Zeekler. In nine short months, they quickly became the fastest growing, and largest MLM organization of any first year startup (source Network Marketing Business Journal) in modern history.

BidiFy launched in 2012, to become the first competitor of Zeek Rewards and is quickly coming on strong internationally. They have just launched their new penny auction house Bidsson.com and are growing steady in the USA as well as worldwide.

Today, July 4th, 2012, Randy Jeffers has opened for prelaunch his “Bids That Give” penny auction house and MLM Income opportunity (although Randy Jeffers is stating Bids That Give is NOT mlm).

Next week I will be doing a deeper investigation into the whole business model. But I do caution anyone who is looking at Bids That Give to fully understand a couple of concerns I have.

1. Although I personally do not think penny auctions fall under the U.S. Code of what is defined as a direct selling company, at this time that is the only reference point the regulators have to work with, and if any penny auction house is stating “we are not MLM” that is a red flag to be concerned with.

2. History has proven that when a for profit company (with a compensation plan) leads off with “giving to the needy” the SEC, FTC and State AGs feel the hair on the back of the neck’s start to prickle. Several very successful networker marketers have tried this in the past just to have regulators get involved. Randy is a smart businessman and has access to great legal minds, so only time will tell, but this is a red flag concern.

If you love the unique bid auction niche, and you are reviewing Bids That Give, just realize this is a young niche and is still very vulnerable to regulatory actions.

I have always enjoyed speaking with Randy Jeffers and have found he doesn’t back down from the hard questions. I look forward to chatting with him in the near future on this new venture.

Plus in seeing some of the growing pains the other auction houses have or are going through, just be very careful.

This is a really short editorial because I take 18 minutes to share my heart. After taking to heart what both the Anti-Scam community leaders have to say, and what some of the leaders inside the network marketing community have to say, I went for a drive with my wife Paige and talked with her. Now I am willing to share a few words to clear up some of the questions folks have about why it seems I am advocating Unique Bid Auction companies Zeek Rewards, BidiFy and DubLi Network.

I want to personally thank the folks on both sides of this issue, for their insights and thoughts. It is through this continued collaboration that we will continue to bring a fair and balanced review on any and all companies so to save financial harm to millions.

Well after a few date changes, BidiFy has finally officially launched their penny auction house Bidsson. Here at MLM Help Desk we started covering the penny action niche in the 4th quarter of 2011. But it was not until about Feb or Mar of 2012, that we started to see this niche fire up in the network marketing space. Today I know of at least five new network marketing penny auction companies who are funding to launch or already funded and are creating their sites. Today I want to look at BidiFy and Bidsson.

I first want to cover one concern I have with the BidiFy site. All in all they have done a great job, and Kevin Thompson their MLM Attorney has really tweaked and cleaned up their business model from our first review a few months ago. However, there is still one concern I have. I am reaching out to Kevin Thompson and a few other MLM Attorneys to get a better understanding of current laws.

Now when you read the explanation of the BidiFy Mandatory Account, my concern comes from the following:

“20% of all cash rewards earned in Bidify are paid as mandatory funds to your Mandatory Account. Funds in your Mandatory Account cannot be withdrawn as cash, instead it must be spent at the Bidsson site.

Funds in your mandatory account are transferred to Bidsson upon your request, by a single click on a button.
Purchasing Retail Bids to bid at auctions.
– Paying for your won auctions.
– Buying products at retail price directly from the Bidsson site.
– Paying for your monthly administrative fee in Bidify.
NOTE: Mandatory funds used to purchase Retail Products will generate PV and GV, and can also generate retail bonus to your sponsor.”

It is my understanding that when a company doing business in the USA, using a direct sales distribution channel, in this case network marketing, they can not demand that their sales/marketing force purchase or use their services. When a company makes such a demand, they may trigger both IRS rules regarding Independent Distributor status, and could trigger anti-pyramid laws at both a state and federal level.

Again, let me be clear, the laws may have changed, and if so we will be updating this post in the future. But, in years past, it has been very clear, you CAN”T demand independent distributors purchase products and services in order to earn commissions.

Outside of that one issue, things do look pretty standard, and the new penny auction site is a clean launch. I do need to make it clear, the money amounts on the Bidsson site are in Euros and not US Dollars, which may cause some confusion for bidders. So make sure you fully understand the conversion rates before making any form of purchase.